International cooperation

While on the one hand the financial system operates at the global level, the supervision of financial markets is generally performed at the national level. The purpose of international cooperation is to support the implementation of national regulations – also in other countries – and to stabilise the financial system as a whole.

Cross-border supervisory activity carried out by financial market supervisors of internationally active institutions has heightened. The number of requests for international cooperation received from financial market supervisory authorities mostly relating to insider trading, market manipulation and breaching reporting requirements remains steady. On-site supervisory reviews performed by foreign financial market supervisory authorities at licence holders’ in Switzerland is on the increase. In 2011, FINMA received 383 incoming requests for assistance, while in 2015 the number went up to 486.

The number of outgoing requests for assistance made by FINMA has also risen. In 2011 it was 16, whereas in 2015 the number rose to 59.